1 Cultural Foundation of Distribution of Income: the Dutch Case

Abstract: Income inequality is not persistent as far as the Netherlands is concerned. Dutch income inequality diminished with the rise of the welfare state. One of the explanatory factors of the development of income inequality is the corporatist model applied to socio-economic negotiations. The Dutch case endorses the view that corporatist institutions are significant for income distribution. Corporatism also may influence productivity positively. Therefore, the integration of the successful corporatist countries into the European Union does not imply that they have to converge to the socio-economic governance structure of the other countries. It is likely that European countries such as the Netherlands can continue their approach to income equality